[hatzie]

Flush with a Chemical

1. Rinse the engine out from the bottom radiator hose with the thermostat removed til the water runs clear out the top hose then remove and rinse the radiator the same way.
2. Re-install the radiator and thermostat then fill with tap water and run the engine til it's at operating temp. Let cool and drain.
3. Rinse out again til the water runs clear.
4. Repeat step 2 & 3 til the water is clean and clear at operating temp.
5. Replace any dodgy looking, super hard, or soft hoses.
6. Get some Wynns' Heavy Duty Professional flush and follow the instructions to clear out the rust and scale.
7. Repeat steps 2 & 3 again til the water is clean and clear at operating temp then continue with the next step after this one.
8. Carefully look over the water pump, Radiator, and Heater (pay attention to the smell with the heat on). They may leak after the scale is removed because you are exposing holes that were covered by the rust and scale. If you had questionable intake gaskets or leaking head gaskets that were band-aided with Bars-Leak or the leaks were just blocked by crud and rust they will rear their ugly heads now or soon.
9. If there are no leaks let cool and empty the system.
10. Replace the thermostat.
11. Look over all your hoses again and make sure they are all in good shape.
12. Re-Fill with 50:50 Prestone Dexcool. Dexcool works just fine and 50:50 means you don't have to find distilled water to mix it. The problematic early formulations are long gone. It'll precipitate silicates if you mix it with the old green silicate anti-freeze or if you have a leaky head gasket or cracks in the heads or block... the green silicate stuff will make acids and do nasty stuff with a bad head gasket or cracks into the combustion chamber too... that's a symptom not a causal factor. The coolant has nothing to do with intake and head gaskets failing it's just a convenient scapegoat. Those failures are blamed on both Dexcool and the old green silicate stuff. If the gasket failures have anything to do with coolant I'd bet it's that said coolant was mixed with TAP WATER instead of Distilled. Tap Water in engine coolant is a BIG NO NO. If you decide to use Silicate antifreeze then buy the 50:50 pre-mix and mark the reservoir so you don't mix it with Dexcool. Both of them work. Neither is better.

I usually replace the serpentine belt and look over the tensioner and idler pulleys. I replace them if they feel crunchy or look less than 100% but that's personal preference. If the idler bearings or the tensioner arm feel crunchy you'll be back in there soon. Might's well do it now.
Look over the clutch fan as well. A rule of thumb is mark one fan blade and spin the clutch fan hard when the engine has not been started for 24hours. If it spins more than 5 rotations the clutch is likely worn out.